Dallas assigned Pavel Podkolkin to the NBADL.
Portland at Dallas (March 7)
Josh Howard remained out with a strained hamstring, but Devin Harris
returned after missing the previous 4 games with a strained quad. Jason
Terry was questionable for the game as he left town to attend to a family
emergency in Atlanta, but he did return to Dallas in time to play. The
Mavs came out shooting blanks and Portland jumped out to a 10-1 lead with
9 minutes remaining. Dallas still hadn't made a basket and consecutive
buckets by Zach Randolph gave Portland a 16-3 lead with 6 minutes to go.
Jerry Stackhouse hit a jumper with 5:35 left for Dallas' first field goal
of the game - Dallas missed their first 9 shots. It was the start of an
offensive flurry for Dallas [sarcasm] and a layup by Devin Harris pulled
Dallas within 11-17 with 3:35 remaining. Dallas could get no closer then
6 points, though. Portland led 23-17 after 1. The 2nd quarter found
Portland still leading as Dallas still struggled with their shooting and
the Mavs could get no closer than 3 points. Portland scored 8 straight
points to go up 41-30 with 2 minutes to go. Terry then hit a jumper and
3-pointer to pull Dallas within 6 points. After a dunk by Randolph, Dirk
Nowitzki hit a jumper with a fraction of a second left in the quarter.
Portland led 43-37 at the half. Portland shot 51% FG and Dallas shot 37%
FG in the half. Portland led 48-41 with 10:35 remaining and Dallas went
on an 8-1 run to tie the game at 49-49 with 6:45 left. Portland then
scored the next 6 points to retain the lead. Stackhouse hit 2 free
throws, Portland missed late in the shot clock, and Terry nailed a
3-pointer with .2 seconds left in the quarter. Portland led 62-60 after
3. Nowitzki had 10 points in the 3rd quarter. Randolph's 3-point play
with 10 minutes remaining were the first points scored in the 4th quarter
as the teams combined to miss their first 7 shots. Portland led 69-65
with 7:05 to go and Stackhouse hit a 3-pointer and 2 free throws to give
Dallas their first lead at 72-71 with 5:25 remaining. A bucket by Darius
Miles gave Portland back the lead. After the teams traded misses,
Nowitzki hit 2 free throws and Terry nailed a 3-pointer to give Dallas a
75-71 lead with 4:40 left. A bucket by Steve Blake and layup by Randolph
tied the game at 79-79 with 2 minutes to go. Terry hit a floater, but
Randolph answered with a layup with 1:25 left. Harris was fouled and hit
both free throws with 1:20 remaining. Blake missed a long shot. Nowitzki
got the ball on the elbow with a smaller player on him and Portland sent
another player at Nowitzki and he then passed to an open Stackhouse in the
corner and Stack drained the 3-pointer to give Dallas an 86-81 led with 40
seconds to go. Portland called timeout and advanced the ball. Harris
pressured the inbounds pass and was able to deflect the pass and then grab
the ball for the steal and passed the ball to Terry, who was intentionally
fouled. Dallas shot 7-8 FT (the only miss came with 10 seconds left) to
seal the win, though Portland did hit 2 3-pointers in the last 30 seconds
of the game. Dallas won 93-87.
It was an ugly game by Dallas and they were lucky to get the win. I say
luck as Portland's many missed free throws were the real difference in the
game and Dallas had nothing to do with Portland missing them (including an
airball free throw). Portland shot a mere 14-25 FT - that's 11 missed
free throws in what was a tie game with 1:30 left. Dallas on the other
hand was strong at the line in shooting 29-32 FT, including 8 attempts off
of intentional fouls. Dallas did step up their offense in the 4th quarter
in out-scoring Portland 33-25 - after only scoring 37 points in the 1st
half. For the game, Dallas shot 38.7% (29-75) FG including 6-15
3-pointers. Portland shot 48.6% (35-72) FG including 3-8 3-pointers (and
2 of the makes were in the last 25 seconds of the game). Dallas
out-rebounded Portland 43-36 including 11-6 offensive, but 2nd chance
points were few and far in between as Dallas had 4 2nd chance points and
Portland had 6 2nd chance points. Portland did have 9 blocked shots,
including 3 highlight worthy ones. Thus ended Dallas stretch of 12 out of
14 games at home (with a record of 11-3, including losing both road games)
and starts a stretch of 6 of the next 7 on the road and 11 of the next 14
on the road. Up first is Portland again, this time in Portland on
Thursday.
Jerry Stackhouse lit it up in the 4th quarter after having a lousy first 3
quarters. 15 of Stack's 21 points came in the 4th quarter, including both
of his 3-pointers. He shot 9-10 FT and had 5 rebounds in the game. Jason
Terry also had a strong 4th in scoring 11 of his team high 26 points in
the 4th. He shot 4-9 3-pointers and had 2 assists and no turnovers in the
game. Dirk Nowitzki had a double-double with 25 points including 11-12 FT
and 10 rebounds. He also had 4 assists. Devin Harris had a nice return
to action, including a clinching steal late in the game, with 13 points, 5
rebounds, and 4 assists. The rest of the Mavs combined for just 8 points.
Adrian Griffin had 2 points on 1-4 FG, 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 2 steals
in 14 minutes. Marquis Daniels had 4 points on 2-7 FG and 3 rebounds - he
started the game, but did not start the 2nd half as Avery Johnson opted to
start Harris. DeSagana Diop missed his only attempt, but had 8 rebounds
and played mostly good defense on Zach Randolph - Randolph was hot and hit
some tough shots despite the defense, not because it was lacking. Erick
Dampier missed his 4 attempts and hit 2 free throws and had 7 rebounds
including 4 offensive.
Zach Randolph had a huge game and was very active. He had a game high 33
points including 14-25 FG and 8 rebounds in 42 minutes. Juan Dixon had 17
points including 6-9 FG, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. he also turned the
ball over 4 times. Steve Black had 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Darius Miles had 11 points, but shot just 5-15 FG. The rest of the
Blazers combined for just 14 points.
Quotes
[Johnson was upset during his press conference and even pounded the table
a couple of times.]
Avery Johnson: "I don't know what I am going to have to do to get this
team charged up, but I am willing to do anything, okay. I'm willing to do
whatever it takes to get us going. So, I'm open for any ideas. I'll run
around a track, bench press, whatever you want me to do. I couldn't even
talk to my team at halftime tonight."
Johnson on if the team is mentally tired: "Are they tired of what? What
have we done? It's a hundred days to the finals right now. This is what
the NBA season is about. It's not about having 3 days off between a game
or anything like that. This is the nuts and bolts of the NBA season.
Your body doesn't feel as good, you fight a little fatigue, you have some
injuries, and nobody cares about injuries. Nobody. There's been teams
that's been injured all year long."
Johnson: "3 games in 4 days, playing teams below .500, above .500, it
really doesn't matter at this point. The schedule is not a problem.
[repeat 4 times] Everybody's got schedule stuff. The schedule is not a
problem. We haven't played well since the All-Star break, all right. We
have not played well since the All-Star break."
Johnson: "It's 100 days to the Finals. It's totally on my shoulders.
It's not the referees. It's the coach."
Johnson: "Great job by the fans, they have been bailing us out lately.
It's nobody's fault but mine."
Johnson: "I'm going to have to do something because it's not working what
we're doing."
Dirk Nowitzki: "I really think our sense of urgency is so much different
in the 2nd half than the 1st half. Obviously, we have to correct that.
It doesn't matter who we play. If you give a team confidence early then
you're in for an uphill battle the rest of the night. You've got to give
them credit. Zach played a great game. Like I said, we really made it
hard on ourselves in the 1st half; always trailing, always trailing, and
that takes a lot of energy out of you. Obviously, we have to address that
and find ways to get more energy going at the get go."
Nowitzki on Harris' return: "Obviously, we missed him a lot too. We had
to play Darrell a lot of minutes [when Harris was out] and a little bit
out of position on some plays. I think we needed Devin back. He's our
best penetrator and makes things happen in the paint for us. We need him
back on both ends of the floor, so it's good to see him back in shape."
Jason Terry: "We definitely need to feel a sense of urgency, especially in
that 1st quarter. That's where we got down tonight and it made it kind of
tough. It gives the other team confidence. Once they get out on us 10-1
or whatever it was, they feel very confident and their shots start to fall
and you've got no defense for that. We've got to get a better start."
Terry on his 4th quarter scoring: "The ball was in my hands at the time.
I just had to get it done. A couple of times it was at the end of the
shot clock, guys kicked it to me and I was able to knock it down. We
needed it and we answered the bell."
Terry on Dallas' struggles: "It's going to come from within this team.
Myself, Dirk, Stackhouse - the leaders of this team are going to make sure
that it gets done. That's the challenge right now, so the next time we
are faced with a challenge, we'll respond and we'll respond well."
Jerry Stackhouse on Dallas' struggles: "Our veteran guys have to step up.
Our younger guys, we can't expect them to be there yet. As talented and
as good as they are, we can't expect them to create their energy and their
enthusiasm. Sometimes you've got to force it out of them and I think
that's what Avery wants to see happen and that's what we've just got to
do. Quite frankly, we haven't been doing as good a job as we need to be."
Stackhouse: "We don't need Avery yelling at us and feeling he has to be
our energy and create enthusiasm. We have to do that ourselves."
Stackhouse: "We've been here a long time. We seem to tighten things up on
the road. We've been experiencing a little bit of a lull. But we played
good basketball for a lot longer stretch than we've been playing
not-so-good basketball."
Stackhouse on hitting the road: "We need to free our minds, get in hotels
and build that comraderie. It's still there, but I think that it goes up
on the road. I'm looking forward to a nice dinner with the guys tomorrow
night."
Stackhouse on his recent shooting woes: "I've looked at the tapes and
those were my shots. You're going to go through dry spells. I just hope
it's behind me."
Devin Harris on stealing the inbounds pass near the end of the game:
"[Blake] kind of gave it away with the way he was leaning. I was able to
get a hand on it and tip it away."
Adrian Griffin: "I think that it's the responsibility of the players to
bring the energy and the focus. The last few games we've been in and
out - we've played a solid quarter here, a solid 10 minutes there and
then we've had some lapses. I think [Johnson's] message is that he
can't go out on the court and play for us. We have to take some
accountability."
Nate McMillan: "We missed 11 free throws and we had some open looks at
point-blank range and open looks on the perimeter that we didn't knock
down. Steve [Blake] had a good look at a 3 that Zach made the right play,
right pass. It comes down really to making plays. They've been able to
make plays down the stretch and we haven't. I think the free throw line
really stands out. 11 free throws and you're looking at a 6 point ball
game."
McMillan on Stackhouse's 3 late in the game: "I think Miles was deep in
the paint and got sealed and may have lost him, and he was wide open over
there. Again we've got to make plays to close it out and keep those guys
off the line. We didn't get no breaks. I think the free throw calls were
7 to 1 with 6 minutes to go in the game. Every time we touched those guys
it was a foul. They shoot 33 free throws and shoot 90% from the line."
McMillan on Miles: "It was a gamble. I had Viktor [Khryapa] at the
scorers table and I was ready to pull [Miles] out, then he hits that
jumper and I decided to give him a couple more possessions. And again,
those are the guys we pay to put in that position, and they have to get us
through."
Zach Randolph: "It was really disappointing. We played hard tonight. We
had a couple of defensive breakdowns towards the end. We didn't execute.
We got good shots and good looks at the basket. We missed a lot of free
throws. We could have won the game. We gave ourselves a chance."
Randolph: "We were in the game. They hit big shots. Jason Terry hit a
lot of clutch shots, contested shots, and it hurt us. Stackhouse came
through and hit big shots. But like I said, we had a chance."
Darius Miles: "Today, [McMillan] really wasn't going to me. [Randolph]
was really rolling and we really wanted to get the ball to [Randolph]. I
was shooting a bunch of jumpers and wasn't making nothing, but we were
going to our #1 guy. I was our second option, and until he called my name
or my number, I was fine."
Steve Blake: "We felt like we gave another one away. They scored 30 plus
points in the 4th quarter. We've got to take a better approach in the 4th
quarter and try to contain those guys. So a lot of credit to them, but we
felt like we let one get away."
Blake on free throws: "We struggled again. It's something coach and us as
players have talked about. We've got to make free throws to win
basketball games. We're attacking the basket, we're getting the ball
inside, we've just got to knock down our free throws - everybody."
Juan Dixon on free throw shooting: "It's like we are cursed. And the
thing is, we are missing bad."
Dallas Mavericks 93, Portland Trailblazers 87 at Dallas (March 7)
1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT%
Dallas 17 20 23 33 - 93 .383 .400 .387 .906
Portland 23 20 19 25 - 87 .500 .375 .486 .560
Halftime: Portland 43-37
3rd Q: Portland 62-60
Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 7:01 2nd, Jason Terry 5:59 3rd,
Dallas defensive 3 seconds 7:13 4th
Refs: Joe DeRosa, Anthony Jordan, Scott Wall
Attendance: 20,216 (sellout)
Dallas Mavericks REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Jason Terry 39 9-19 4-9 4-4 26 0-1 2 0 4 0 1
Adrian Griffin 14 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 0-1 1 1 0 2 0
Dirk Nowitzki 39 7-15 0-1 11-12 25 1-10 4 1 2 1 0
Marquis Daniels 27 2-7 0-1 0-0 4 1-3 1 1 0 1 0
DeSagana Diop 26 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2-8 0 0 3 1 1
Jerry Stackhouse 34 5-12 2-3 9-10 21 1-5 3 2 1 1 0
Devin Harris 32 5-11 0-1 3-4 13 2-5 4 3 4 2 1
Erick Dampier 20 0-4 0-0 2-2 2 4-7 0 1 3 1 0
Josh Powell 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-3 1 0 1 0 0
Darrell Armstrong 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0
DJ Mbenga 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 48 29-75 6-15 29-32 93 11-43 16 13 19 9 3
Portland Trailblazers REB
Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK
Steve Blake 36 5-12 0-3 2-5 12 1-4 5 3 3 0 0
Juan Dixon 33 6-9 2-2 3-4 17 0-5 4 4 3 0 0
Zach Randolph 42 14-25 0-0 5-7 33 1-8 2 2 3 0 0
Viktor Khryapa 17 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1-4 0 3 1 1 2
Theo Ratliff 35 2-2 0-0 2-6 6 0-6 1 2 2 0 3
Darius Miles 30 5-15 1-1 0-0 11 2-3 0 0 4 2 2
Jarrett Jack 15 0-1 0-0 2-3 2 0-2 0 1 3 0 0
Brian Skinner 13 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-3 2 1 1 0 1
Sebastian Telfair 12 2-6 0-2 0-0 4 0-1 1 1 3 0 0
Martell Webster 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 3 0 1
Voshon Lenard 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0
Totals 48 35-72 3-8 14-25 87 6-36 16 17 27 3 9
patricia